RESEARCH ARTICLE The Rise and Fall of Education for Sustainability in New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Strategies: An Orchestrated Conspiracy of Ignorance? [Extended version] PETER J. MELLALIEU 1 Department of Management and Marketing, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand Correspondence address Email: pmellalieu@unitec.ac.nz Peter J. Mellalieu, Department of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Creative Industries and Business, Unitec Institute of Technology, Private Bag 92025, Auckland, New Zealand. Abstract New Zealand enacted pioneering legislation embracing the notion of sustainable development through its Resource Management Act (1991). Through its Tertiary Education Strategy (TES) 2007-2012 the Labour government signalled its desire that the country’s higher education sector should support its ambitious environmental vision and goals. A strategic audit of the environmental performance of a publicly-funded New Zealand tertiary educational organisation examined the extent to which the institution achieved the environmental goals espoused in its government-approved charter. For several reasons, the institution had retreated substantially from its earlier pioneering commitments to environmental initiatives, initiated from the late 1990s. Specifically, the government’s environmental policy aims were not translated into an explicit investment funding priority for the tertiary education sector nor into an appropriate system of monitoring and control. The most recent National government tertiary education strategy, TES 2010-2015, retreats further, condemning the nation’s future professional leadership - and tertiary graduates in general - to a deep ignorance about the requirements, risks, and opportunities for sustainable development. Keywords (1) education for sustainability; EfS; environmental education; environmental awareness; (2) strategic audit; strategic management; environmental audit; (3) higher education policy; tertiary education policy; public policy; (4) professional leadership; citizenship; sustainable development; Working paper Under review 1 1 This document is under review for publication, submitted 4 March 2011. Please cite as: Mellalieu, P. J. (2011). The Rise and Fall of Education for Sustainability in New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Strategies: An Orchestrated Conspiracy of Ignorance? [Extended version - Under review]. Department of Management & Marketing Working Papers. Auckland, NZ: Unitec Institute of Technology.